Rare Look Inside A Royal Navy Warship | Warship E4 | Our Stories

This is the HMS Illustrious, the mothership that leads your international task force east of the sewers. The Merlin helicopters are protecting her through these dangerous waters, but she is also about to get her most powerful weapon, the awesome gr9 Harrier jump chair. She hello foreign channel and is now docked in the Middle East. which means the officers are stepping out with their tropical whites, the long Flex can cool it down, the harriers can be done in five days, but right now they are waiting for another important visitor, excellent, very good, down, so up , we say hello, down, and then we get on. all together, okay, the commander-in-chief is coming to dinner, don't stop saluting until he continues, okay, everyone come, my captain will greet you along with you, step forward, let's go to the captain's kitchen, a dinner worthy of an admiral is underway. we have a starter of swordfish with ribbons of paglitelli, prawn and smoked salmon risotto, carbonara sauce with saffron.

It's up to Captain Steward Freddy to make sure the presentation is perfect. This is what everyone is taught in basic butler and me training. He talked about a ply table, what kind of glasses you need for different drinks, he talked about different napkin folds, napkins are called a Cox comb, but serving the Admiral means missing shore leave, that's part of the job that is Stuart and that you get many VIP dignitaries. on it, so I'll circle around us now we'll get a shoe another time, but there's a lot of work to do. Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope is Commander-in-Chief of the entire Navy Fleet, thank you. he oversees 104 ships and 35,000 sailors.

I have to train them. I have to maintain them. I have to make sure they are stored. I have to ensure that they are prepared and available for use by the government as required aboard Lusty. The best thing after

royal

ty, hey, you need a couple of spoons, 19-year-old China has been recruited to spend the night to help Captain Chef. Personally I think it's still pretty hectic, it's all starting now, usually Shiner Cooks, quantity not quality, for hundreds. of hungry sailors in the marshaling mess, around 400 people are waiting for the check from this Enterprise. I want to go here too and say that I don't want that nonsense about how another new recruit for the night is China's twin sister, Rachel, who she normally works with.

In the officers' mess there is no shortage of ingredients for the Captain's Galley main course we have a crook fillet marinated in dried herbs and spaces to serve it on a flat potato hand with salted spinach, roasted red peppers and fennel with tomato and fennel is here George's Gourmet Creations is going to feast on the Admiral but deep in the bowels of the ship there is less tasty business to attend to Corey has been infected and seriously we are right we need to receive an unhappy subsistence allowance for this We need to get paid to live here, it's okay, I swear, it's okay, Dave Smith, one of the ship's marine engineers or stokers has been called to detect the problem, the smell is caused by this toilet, okay, that problem is solved.

There wasn't enough water in the toilet, so obviously the air was coming up through the trap and, uh, contaminating the smell, all I had to do was flush it. Rachel finished serving the emerald and the stoker, Dave is free from maintenance duties, so they are planning it together if I have a problem. I know I can go to Dave and talk to Dave about it and he will help me and he doesn't judge him. He doesn't judge anyone. He's always very relaxed and just a charming foreigner, but. Rachel has a boyfriend at home, it can be confusing.

I mean, if I'm with Dave, I can't believe you said that, but at the end of the day, if you meet someone you really like, I personally think you should be with them. If you are even thinking about being unfaithful to the partner you are with at the moment there is no point in being with that person you better not be that way I see it anyway watch this space HMS Illustrious is leading an international task group to the Indian Ocean It has an arsenal of weaponry and a squadron of six Merlin helicopters, but so far it is missing its deadliest hardware.

The squadron flying to illustrious is called Naval Strike Wing and they are heading from RAF cottesmore in the East Midlands, the ship we all love, it's all there for some of you, you won't have been on the ship before. It will be an eye-opener and for those of us veterans who have returned, it would be like coming home, just keep in mind that we will be taking seven pilots, three engineering officers and about 40 engineers to

look

after the plane, so it's a pretty big team. The qualities of a Harry pilot are identified from the beginning and what we are

look

ing for are people who are dynamic and think quickly.

They have to be able to fly, talk and navigate. They are the cream of the crop. We have two new guys who have never landed a Harrier on board before and the other guys have. I've never landed on board at night before, so there's plenty of new stuff for everyone. Lt. Dave Boyak was a helicopter pilot before he began flying Jump Jets. He will attempt his first landing on an aircraft carrier that he always wanted to board. Slightly faster jets. I've been caught for speeding several times, at least I can do it legally on this. The youngest driver is Nick Mattock, 26 years old.

I've only been with one squad for three weeks so far. Uh, my first three weeks on the squadron are pretty exciting. I'm going to an aircraft carrier. I'll do my initial carrier qualification and the first week we're there we'll see each other after takeoff and landing practice a few times because it's pretty hard to train Dave and Nick are squadron leader Raf Rich Hillard flying off the carrier is probably the type of hardest flight you can do, it's very, very challenging, but it's very satisfying when you do it well and, actually, most pilots. I think I enjoy a challenge, that's why we do the work.

It's about them among Lusty's team. These guys live on the board. It's his house. It's where they work. And suddenly, a bunch of drivers show up and think they're the best. sliced ​​bread so they always think we're primadonna who think everything revolves around us and we'll joke with them for being, you know, fish heads is what we call them, so the most important thing is this is my lunch for the trip, so I don't know what I have there, but I'll take a look when it's in the air, probably some Sony and a drink that has 9721 clear main takeoff lines, they'll travel at 500 miles per hour and do the same thing.

A 4,000 mile journey in two stages, so from RAF Cottagemore they will have a five hour flight to Cyprus where the pilots can rest and the planes can be serviced before heading to the ship, for now the best are the best. Aboard Lusty is Squadron 814, better known as The Flying Tigers, they fly six Merlin anti-submarine helicopters and are used to having the flight deck to themselves. It always seems like as soon as the Jets come on board, they tend to take priority. The pilots tend to certainly be considered by the rotation guys as sort of Shandy drinkers, so they bring a lot to the ship, but they're not treated any differently, they're just another weapons system on the ship, yeah, I look forward to working with they.

In the course of this exercise, honestly, today the Flying Tigers have a different kind of mission: taking the chaplain, Father David Yates, to another ship in the fleet. This morning I will approach the Spanish ship to say mass. a helicopter and we are going to be lowered to the um to the Spanish ship because our helicopters are too big and heavy to land on their deck, normally a transfer to another ship would be by boat, but the last time the commander of Bish Fally tried it , Tim Johnston, pick up the story, okay, yeah, he was transferring, leave me alone, if we do it tomorrow.

David was unlucky enough to be involved as Man Overboard, he was transferring another boat by boat and when he hit the bottom. He lost the boat with his foot cut off the ladder and ended up in the water. Amused as people on the quarterdeck watched him floating, the idea that chaplains could walk on water Jesus-style is a running joke in the Navy. and I proved I couldn't walk on water and I was so glad I got a legendary life jacket every time David has to go to another boat to try to get them to go on a boat, but I doubt we'll see that happen again.

I'm not as terrified as I pretend to be and sometimes people feel like it's well uh you know they're the best they know, it doesn't matter and they take me under their wings so I tend to play in the galleries a bit. a little, but if I get the idea of ​​hanging from a helicopter and a piece of rope it doesn't appeal much to me, but I will survive applause with an offering that calms your nerves hmm, a very good draft beer, it's also in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen blessed are you Lord God of all creation for your goodness we have this wine to offer the blood of Christ your work here is done and the Spanish Navy once again extends its Hospitality well, it is very good, oh my Please, like the Religious Ambassador working group, it would be rude to decline.

The wine is lovely, very pleasant, in fact, finally, the boat begins to look like the Costa del Sol, they have the sun, they have the sea, but as long as it lasts. Since they are on board, that is as far as they can go, there is a possibility of having relationships, but it is there to know something like rewards and on board, they know the rules on board well, in general, they also apply them, but Jason. Farnsworth has his own hypothetical solution: how could someone move and the no-touch rule if they saw a bird on a boat?

It seems right to me, for example, to find myself in this compartment. I bet no one will be there for about half an hour. and then that's probably how you get around the no touching rule, so you can probably touch yourself quite a bit, they catch you, yeah, I found out they kill you, but obviously if you didn't do it, I wouldn't do it. I don't think it's right that the no contact rules are hard on Rachel and Dave, who have been getting closer when you're on a dumb street or whatever, you meet a guy that you spend years just finding out, but somewhere like a ship.

You find out things about them very quickly, so even though they've known each other for a couple of months, it feels like they've known each other for a year or something, but things aren't going well with her boyfriend at home. I love him. to bed too, but it's hard because I haven't talked to him in a while, we basically agreed that he'll still be there when he gets back and everything, but while he's away it's better to cancel it. For a moment I guess that's the best way to put it, but lust is a

warship

, not a love ship, and in the next 48 hours it will sail past the war-torn states of Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia, a failed state harboring terrorists one or two procedures Well, this area is one of the most dangerous for piracy in the world.

Well, therefore, there is a great threat to merchant ships. Part of our job is to carry out anti-terrorist and anti-drug operations, therefore all ships within the task force. you need to have a boarding team ready to go. Navy dance groups are made up of volunteers. This is a new group that is getting into their places. You can do any job, any job on board. You can always receive detailed offers to participate in the boarding group. All different jobs. You have engineers, you have a writer here who works in personnel. Chefs do it too. They don't have to simply be Warfare before they are allowed into a real situation.

They're doing some role playing in illustrious, but me. I want to practice both teams, the first team does that, okay, then the second team, yeah, okay, cool, but there's a problem with the radios that I got from the bridge and it's dead. Po Knight needs to be aware of that because, um, that's unacceptable in that. I'll try them when I get there when the radios are fixed. There is some confusion about their call signs. Okay, Charlie, this is your zero. Okay, that one doesn't work. Actually, this is zero? No matter, no matter, the first stage of the boarding exercise is to launch the inflatables and rebuild the Lusty as if she were a hostile vessel, but there is a problem with the life jackets.

We are there right now because we didn't do it. They don't tell me that we are going to use them correctly, so it's okay, it's okay to reject them on the spot. Launch the inflatables. It is abandoned to search the ship. What I want to do is see the right coverage and move well. Here I know it's false. I know we're on board the ship, but I want to see cover and move those who don't have a rifle. Okay, just the old finger treatment. Okay, we've all done well. A suspicious package has been hidden. the hangar, okay, yes, we would imagine you are in a hallway as expected on a merchant ship, okay, happy, keep going, keep looking forward after your initial problems, the novice boarding party has been organized well, that's fine, that's fine, wewe are moving Back this way across now John, have you stand guard on that level of the drum.

The mission was accomplished with an explosive discovery. Great, happy with that. It was ok. The next day, the flight deck crew is preparing for the grand arrival. The eaglets are reaching the end. of his trip to join Lusty, with them he flies a refueling plane that one day was in the air with the Jets at various points on the trip. The tanker truck takes 10 minutes to fill each plane with 8,000 liters of fuel. The final leg of their journey from Cyprus will last more than three and a half hours. The new pilot of the Harrier squadron, Nick Matic, has already arrived in a less glamorous means of transport. .

It's very exciting to work on the boat, especially being one of the guys. I'm going to fly from there, um, back, um, yeah, it's a lot of fun, I took a speedboat out of the dock and went up the side and wrote that it's all very nautical, but it's not, it doesn't feel like it. It better be there, it shouldn't be there, keep your eyes down, it's not a Sunday morning stroll, the flight deck crew does their final check for food scraps or foreign objects and the job of the Flight deck officer, John Llewellyn, is to make sure the runway is pristine.

Any loose item or any item that could damage an aircraft engine or personnel on the flight deck can range from a piece of ground equipment that simply has not been properly secured to two Flex paints that could be ingested or blown in the face of someone, yes, I've seen an entire squadron write off eight planes in a row because they didn't make it to the deck properly after it came out of a nightmare overhaul. They come so much. The illustrious HMS aircraft carrier is about to reach its peak. The combat capability already on board is rookie Harrier pilot Nick Matic, oh yeah, and then it just keeps increasing, right?

Yeah, so I'll find out. It's just that they're using it all the time. Yes, sweet, he's coming up on deck to watch his friend Dave Boyak try to land on the aircraft carrier. How should we go wrong? I should try it for the first time tomorrow, so yeah, maybe you'll sleep a little tonight, worrying about it, but I'm sure everything will be fine. Newly licensed with Flyco, the flight deck is ready in every respect for the recovered Jets, so we are ready to go. The recovery of the jet is a pretty exciting time if you can imagine that these are flying bricks now that are literally being held up by the power of the jet and there is a lot going on and it's happening very quickly so I would like to point out that the Rolls engine -Royce Pegasus running at maximum speed is producing 22,000 pounds of thrust enough to lift 10 cars off the ground, almost all of the engine's thrust is diverted downward through its four main nozzles. but this is not the smart thing to do because it is stationary, the aileron rudder and elevators used for steering in flight are useless, so the pilot controls the Harrier by directing some of the engine thrust to mini jet nozzles on the wingtips. tail and in the nose opening and closing them.

These mini Jets, the Harrier, are now being controlled like a lost spaceship and making their first deck landing. Dave Boyak has done about 100 deck landings with helicopters, but just a completely different Beast with the Jets and yes, all the nerves are going away. Don't expect them to be the instructor Rich, also known as Bolly, is already adjusting to the long transits we take. You can put it on autopilot, which means you don't have to physically be flying the plane constantly. You have time to get a get a bottle of water out of your bag, you know you can even read 100 pages of a book or something as you go or listen to some on the radio, listen, you know, listen to questions, probably the hardest thing, Of course, that's if you need to go to the bathroom. but if you do, I don't have any to show you, but there are little urine bags that are just plastic bags for the tube on the end and a little foam and after a lot of untying them, which I'm not going to show you. you can potentially have a Wii and then put it somewhere on the side of the cabin.

You'll love it, right? I love that line with the four eaglets now safe, all eyes are on Nick for the first sledgehammer from him. He will land tomorrow. the magnifying glass will be off, yes, there will be no pressure after that, that would be fine. It could possibly go wrong. I won't sneak onto the plane in the morning before putting all the switches in the wrong place. I probably would. Anyway I don't realize that all Harrier pilots have officer rank, so they share the same flaw as the other officers directly below the flight deck: they are the noisiest cabins on the ship, which tends to wake you up. if you're here and you're about four feet above your head several thousand pounds of thrust Landing all the chests Shaking I actually had to reach up to kill this one because I joined a friend of mine who lived in the Cabin across the street um he said oh, Come on, get in this cabin, okay I entered this cabin without knowing it and it landed and the deck ceilings fell and quickly hit me on the head during the night, which was a good wake-up call.

I don't think it's that one here to be honest with you. Noise is not the only problem. It is very hot in the cabins even when the air conditioning is running. It's pretty hot here at the moment. I'd say it's scorching hot, but it's pretty hot. Fortunately, stoker Dave Smith is on hand to fix it. I don't think I'd like to sleep here. I haven't put anything in my air conditioning unit. Hit it. Oh, it will have drawbacks. Hopefully once we remove this baffle, as you can see, if there's anything wrong with it and hopefully this. this flow should be a little less restricted not only is the cabbage increasing the temperature also increasing between Dave and Rachel the couples want to do it when they say goodbye oh I have to go to work but you want to give them a quick kiss or whatever or a quick hug or something and have you ever been caught?

Yeah, I never did anything to get caught. These girls are in trouble. They have to be awake at halftime. Not noisy. There are too many naughty stalkers down here having sleepovers with friends and they're devastated, aren't you saying that's not ours? I don't even know where your shelf really is. So why did I have to get used to a smoothie the other day? That's a simple question, there you go, kid. right, that's goodbye because we can't do anything else because we're getting a good job, so that has to be our goodbye, it's Nick's big day, he's about to attempt his first takeoff and landing from the aircraft carrier last night, um, it's a little bit. a little apprehensive, so Dave did it yesterday, so let me go with some of the Nets, but yeah, it will be good to find his group.

Indeed the Jets are fully fueled and ready to go for many deck crew members. This is the first launch of a jet and the tension is The engines are turned on high and the plane is lined up for takeoff Roger launches the plane towards the foreign country, that's nice Dave and Bollier in the air Nick has a problem with his GPS satellite navigation that crashed, so you have no navigation in the air, literally, it's like the last minute and everything is canceled. said the aster there and watching the pole kill the ramp, as far as I know, it's the most frustrating thing that I couldn't get the navigation system and the Jet to work properly, so we couldn't go, unfortunately, it's a little annoying, Nick.

He will only have to wait one more day for his first takeoff from a foreign aircraft carrier four

stories

below the flight deck. The Captain's Kitchen is an oasis of calm when he is not hosting dinners for dignitaries. George, the captain's personal chef, prepares a gourmet meal for one. I'm making a tuna steak served on a bed of Chinese leaves with lime and mango or dipping sauce and a ham steak with chorizo-flavored couscous, but it will need a little lemon juice just to bring out the flavor. the orange to review the Gammon and the charizo from us for me the orange and Anna say they go quite well together foreigners further down in the ratings mess you can forget the delicacy this is cooking on an industrial scale George has life and luxury up there in the The captain's place, but it is obviously an album, has changed.

He sometimes he has eight or ten people. All Navy chefs are trained to cook to the highest standard, but the reality for most of them is providing 3,000 meals a day on a tight budget of around a pound. 78 an 80 pound a day at the moment and, ironically, that is actually less than the average prisoner receives when it is Her Majesty's pleasure and also less than the allowance for a modern guard dog, the captain's meal budget It's much higher, but he pays the extra out of his own pocket, it's a privilege, there's hard work cutting and feeding him with the quality that I'm allowed to do, maybe I'll pick him up at the end of the day.

George normally excels at speeds on the toast back. in the ratings mess he tried hard for 700. the kitchen staff is preparing for the usual complaints you get, people say, oh, there are onions in this again, you think well, unfortunately we get everything we get and we have to develop it and we try to prepare them for people who don't like onions and mushrooms and unfortunately sometimes it doesn't work that way, you have good days, raw potatoes called potatoes or burnt potatoes, shocking the longer you are in the sea , the more they become discouraged. Everything, if it is any kind of genuine complaint, you will rectify it and try to improve it.

Sometimes it's just his whining after whining, so I won't even give that to my dog. You have a hammer, look at my cursor, yes, rotating cursor. Over there Millie Harris Dean is a trainee officer in the War Department, where she is learning how to operate the ship in combat situations, which means she is a helicopter. Okay, the track number is specific to that contact at the beginning of the deployment, she had high hopes. for her new career I'm not saying that I want to be the next flea album but you know, I'll set my sights pretty high and I want to achieve the best result I can personally just for myself, the brand tells me that. she has correlated so it's two data links eight weeks later and she has serious doubts.

I agree that I personally find it quite boring. There are many computers apart from her technophobia. A life at sea does not fit with her romantic plans. I want to. By the way, I'll be able to be home much more often and I'll get married to my other half, but that's not the reason I want to transfer, it's my real job. I don't want to be a wolf officer, it doesn't appeal to me. To me, in the slightest, he is aware that Millie is going to review her personnel office and she wants to transfer to Logistics, which means she could spend more time in the UK.

I understand that she is referring to one of the most difficult things about her situation in the United Kingdom. moment is obviously the real name as a whole, is that there is a lack of War officers and it is obviously quite exaggerated with the Logistics officers, which makes it much more difficult for you, apart from the multiple sex change, there is not much What can we do about it, okay? Thank you very much, no problem, training Millie for 18 months has cost the Navy around £60,000. It's quite difficult. Obviously we have already invested quite a bit of money in her as a war officer, so it will be difficult for her.

I hope so. I hope for the best, but I mean it's going to be difficult and it's going to be a challenge. Nick Sat Nav is spruced up and is once again preparing for its first flight from an aircraft carrier. Quite an exciting day. I have a great day. They asked me for three weeks and kind of a combination of all my training and then I finally land on the aircraft carrier, you see me ready and he's not just taking off and landing, he'll be flying in an air defense exercise so I'll pretend I'm coming. do an airstrike on the ship and then obviously try to fight me and take me down and I'll use certain maneuvers and talks and fairs and things to try to defeat his radars, but I don't think he's going to do that.

To get close to the ships, there are quite a few of them out there and I'm sure they'll take me down at great range. Nick's friend Dave Boyak and instructor Bolly will also be participating. I think the day you stop learning is the day. You should stop doing the work to know that the most experienced area pilot in the world will always learn something on every trip he takes. The illustrious has a relatively short runway because the harriers can land vertically and its ski jump design allows them to launch from the deck even when loaded with fuel and bombs, the first to leave is Dave Ben Bali and finally Nick makes his first takeoff covering.

Sometimes when you're at a low level, you know your real Invader threat is that you're actually performing The Jet pretty hard, so 6G. and it's also about 35 degrees outsidebecause we're in the gulf and we're sitting on the plane with no air conditioning, it's pretty hot. The pilots begin their attack by flying very low and turning sharply in hopes of breaking contact. The ship's radar-controlled porter gun is probably at 500 knots and 100 feet, so you know, about 600 miles per hour, if you're not paying close attention you could quickly end up in a seat going around the corner pulling with jet force it's like a race car driver it's his race car when he's going around taking a sideways jeep if you pull too hard you'll eventually turn gray with little drains from your brain the jets throw out flares and spin to confuse the heat seeking missiles now with The Tricky Part Nick is lining up for his first deck landing because it's coming fast.

Lieutenant Commander Toby Everett is at flight control to guide the Jets in five seven if they're ten feet on each side, you know there's no drama and we'll start with the wind. it's a red five in 27. To land like this the Harrier has to be almost empty otherwise it's too heavy to float and while it's floating the engine is water cooled and Nick only has enough to last 90 seconds. final and it's okay, it's, eh. Landing, concentrate your mind a little well, you are and the off-duty crew are making the most of the flight deck for team sports enthusiasts.

The PT Department is organizing an alternative foreign ball. It can be quite violent at times. Hockey sticks. and people breaking inWithout the proper equipment, the players managed to do well, we went for a composite design using various cardboard based materials, mainly duct tape and basically anything else we could find, the shoes are the most important, although let's go to the shoes, obviously, because we don't want anyone to get hurt on the top. Unfortunately, most of the ship's departments are forming a team and Nick Matic is playing for the Harriers. They got him involved at the last minute.

He really he wasn't spending it this morning, but uh, yeah. It would be good for me, but the last thing is that the higher-ups don't come together. I didn't want to play. We were going to form a hodge team, but it gives the other people a chance to win if we don't play. The first round is over and the Naval Attack Wing the harriers are showing that they are made of strong stuff we won obviously it was always good he was going to continue too hit me one was four one four one is good let's take George is watching a final and I think The Naval Strike Wing is looking pretty good, so for a squadron we haven't seen at sea for a long time, it's good to see them doing it overseas versus weapons engineering, the Jets versus the ship for the entire game and the entire competition go to the Golden Goal, we won all four games, obviously it was losing the tuna in the final, we have one, three, two in the Golden Goal, so obviously we saved it for the boat again as always, but Millie Harris.

He's not having fun He's going through a career crisis It seems like his transfer request to Logistics has been rejected I don't know if they're going to say no but it's not official yet I don't want to wait two months until it's official As far as I'm concerned, just we are losing time. Treading Water because technically I'm still under training. I can leave today if I want and that's what we're going to do so basically it's me and it's a convenient time to go because the ship is back in the port in the Middle East hello hello sir come talk to you.

It's okay about my life. She brought her resignation letter to Ian Taylor, her training supervisor. I can understand her motivation. I think it's a shame you feel. This way I don't want to do Warfare. I know I prefer to go out. Great, thank you very much for that sir, yes, sorry, yes, we tried. Certainly, it's fine, thank you, thank you. I'll go and pack. but she has a lot of potential to do very, very well in the Navy. It is a pity. I'm disappointed. I feel relieved. I made the right decision. I'm not really sad about having to regret it after 18 months of training.

Millie quit. ship and the Navy in the dark and the Tigers show their big weapons